


Every day I fall for you a little more

by Elisexyz



Series: 25 days of Swanfire fic-mas [8]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic Fluff, Emma and Neal raise Henry, F/M, Fluff, Tallahasse AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-17 01:19:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16965021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: Neal and Emma look for their lost Christmas lights in the basement, and he reunites with an old friend.





	Every day I fall for you a little more

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Ugly Christmas jumpers" prompt in the [ "25 days of fic-mas" challenge on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/tagged/25-days-of-fic-mas/chrono). Who's ready for more pointless fluff? Well, obviously I am.  
>  By the way, the jumper in the fic is [this one](http://hespokestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ugly-christmas-sweater-t-rex.jpg), if you'd like to see it. 

 “Emma!” Neal calls, excitedly. “Look what I just found!”

She gets her nose up from the giant box she had been snooping in, looking for the Christmas lights that somehow during their move didn’t end up in any of the boxes labelled ‘Christmas’.

As soon as her eyes fall on what Neal is holding in his hands, she snorts, unsure if she should be amused or worried.

“Oh, no,” she says. “I thought you had lost that thing.”

“So did I!” he replies, sounding pretty delighted. “Guess what I’m wearing for Christmas?”

“You can’t be serious.” The look on his face says that he’s _very_ serious.

“This is the only time of the year when it’s socially acceptable for me to do it,” he points out, holding up the horrible jumper in front of his chest as if to let her see how it looks. The answer is ‘ridiculous’, by the way.

“That thing is _never_ socially acceptable,” she points out, but she can’t help smiling at how happy he is to have it back. Although it really is horrible: it’s a blue jumper with some kind of Christmas pattern in white and green, some red around the cuffs and collar, and, most importantly, _Santa Claus riding a T-rex right on the front_.

“ _You_ bought it,” he replies, raising his eyebrows.

“As a _joke_ ,” she reminds him. That was the first Christmas the two of them realized that they both had relatively stable jobs with decent pay and that they could afford to buy a couple of presents for each other too, instead of going for a very cheap gift each. They set up a budget and spent it on a serious present and a silly one.

Emma’s silly present was that horrible jumper, because she knew that it’d make him laugh his ass off, whereas Neal got her a doughnut-shaped mug – it’s is pretty impractical to wash, but she still uses it every day.

“Well, I don’t care, I’m wearing it,” he says, resolutely.

“It’s going to be recorded in the family album,” she reminds him, shaking her head with an amused smile still on her face. They have the habit of taking a ridiculous amount of pictures and saving them all, so there will be no forgetting any ridiculousness happening during the holidays – seriously, there’s a picture of her tripping over a present, which was taken accidentally but was obviously saved.

Neal promptly throws the jumper over his back, tying the sleeves together around his neck so that it doesn’t fall over as they keep looking. “Fine by me,” he announces, lightly. “Hey, here they are,” he adds then, and Emma can draw a sigh of relief: although it’s been a few months since they’ve moved, between work and Henry and everything else there’s a lot of stuff that they didn’t bother unpacking, and as a result the basement is a _mess_. There’s an high chance of getting lost in there, really.

“Thank god,” she mumbles, abandoning her own box – it was full of comic books, so there wasn’t an high chance of finding them in there to begin with, but she wasn’t ruling anything out solely on principle – to approach him. What she finds is a mess of lights that is going to be a nightmare to untangle.

 _How_ did that even _happen_? It’s not like they messed with them while they were in the box, they were left untouched.

She groans, loudly.

“Come on,” Neal grins, pressing his lips against her temple in a consolatory kiss. “We’ll put up some music and get it over with. Then comes the fun part.”

She smiles a little, leaning towards the touch when he wraps his arm around her shoulders. “My playlist,” she immediately calls dibs, because he’s been walking around humming Christmas songs for _weeks_ now, there’s a not insignificant chance that if she leaves him free reign she’ll have to listen to stuff like _Jingle Bells_ on repeat. Which might just end in murder.

Judging by his face, he knows perfectly well what that is about. “Of course, baby,” he chimes, lightly.

As he grabs the box with the lights, leaving most of the rest of the stuff that was inside scattered all around, he starts humming _Silent Night_ , shooting her a deliberate glance as he turns around. Bastard.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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